Esopus Creek:  Big Bend pool is one of the last pools on the Esopus Creek before this legendary trout stream enters New York City’s mighty Ashokan Reservoir.  Big Bend has long been a favorite fishing spot of many anglers including the late Arnold Gingrich who, in the Well-Tempered Angler, wrote, “…favored stretches, such as the Esopus, from Five Arch Bridge down to the Chimney Hole….”

Big Bend is located on New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYC DEP) property just downstream of Five Arch Bridge.  Access can also be gained via Gate W-10 diagonally across NY 28 from the Boiceville Inn.  Approaching this way one is treated to an iconic view overlooking the Esopus Creek valley, an image that has graced the cover of various publications including the “2013 Annual Report” of Open Space Institute and a March 2015 NYSERDA Report Number 15-08 titled “Effects of an Extreme Flood on Aquatic Biota in a Catskill Mountain River" pictured just below.

Perhaps someday soon, a proposed Rail Trail will traverse this high bank providing its users the views only a limited number of anglers now enjoy.

Big Bend Pool, 11x14:

John Burroughs:  John Burroughs (1837-1921) was a famous Catskill trout fisher and a renowned American naturalist; to this day his writings still inspired those of us fond of nature.  Burroughs was one of ten children, born in Roxbury, NY on the family’s farm.  And, eventually he was buried within a short walk of Woodchuck Lodge, the family summer home, in John Burroughs Memorial Field, now a NYS Historic Site.  His gravesite is next to his favorite boyhood rock overlooking the mountains he loved and which he once wrote, "Those hills comfort me as no other place in the world.  It is home there."

Gravesite view 8x10: